Tuesday, April 03, 2007

For the tail end of spring break we escaped two hours west to Kansas City. I'm convinced those couple of days away from phone and computers averted a multiple homicide or at least a nervous breakdown. Mine. Had a great time squeezing too many things into to few days--the usual. Shopping in the Plaza; a visit to Crowne Center with stops at Crayola Cafe, Kaleidescope (Wayne and I booted kids from their chairs so we could dive on the scissors, papers and ribbons Hallmark provided to create art projects), and the Hallmark Center (I teared up at their foreign commercials like they were for Johnson's baby powder); art galleries in Crossroads; funky shops and great restaurants in Westport, the Kempner Art Museum, sushi, room service, a wonderful feels-like-home church service on Palm Sunday at Jacob's Well.

Got home Sunday night worn out from all the vacation fun BUT straight after work on Monday we had tickets to Neko Case. I scrambled for a babysitter, promising her we'd be home by ten, basing this on the only other concert we'd attended at this venue: Iris Dement last month. Iris came on at promptly 7, minus an opening band, and was finished, as I remember, before 9. Remembering many late nights stretching till 3 am after shows in Houston I thought, wow, these midwesterners really are the early to bed sort. No messing around. So we arrive in a mad dash at 7, worried that the show had started, but the Blue Note is virtually empty and the music we hear is coming from the music videos they are screening on stage. Hmmn.

7:30, nothing. Still watching the admittedly nice selection of videos, I start getting pretty uptight, knowing we have to leave before 10. 8:00 rolls around and Neko's band finally emerges and starts playing THEIR OWN STUFF. Songs containing the words Idaho and Hawaii. How long are THEY going to play? Who knows if they're any good, I'm manically watching my watch and wishing I had a tomato. Get on with the show! They play till 9 at which time they jack around with instrument relocation. THEN Neko comes out and decides to tune the 43 guitars she'll apparently be playing. She's satisfied around 9:23 and walks back off the stage. I'm hyperventilating now. It's a good 15 minute drive home. Our neighbor's daughter is babysitting and we know her bus collects her each morning at something like 3 am. We'll push leaving till 10.

At approximately 9:26 Neko finally comes on stage to perform. I'm timing each song. Normally I enjoy stage patter. Tonight I'm strongly fighting the urge to shout, "Shut up and SING!" At ten pm, a mere blur of songs later, we slither out of our seats and tear out for home. We offer apologies for our tardy arrival. I'm still wound like a busted clock.

We'd sat for 2.5 hrs. waiting for a show we watched for less than half an hour. The upside (there is always one, isn't there?) is that during the interminable prologue I heard some new music. The last song played before they switched off the videos blew me away. All of us. I didn't know who was singing it but I got home and googled my head off with the couple of lines I remembered. And viola! This alone was worth the price of admission AND the babysitter. Enjoy.